The history of the USAFA Class
of 59 is the aggregate experiences of its 207 individual members. That body of
knowledge hasnt been recorded in any formal document and exists only in bits and
pieces in the memories and memorabilia of us, the class grads. Our history will always be
a work in progress, and it will always draw from the experiences of its members.

HISTORY OVERVIEW: this site will regularly expend the
information in the History Overview. We have barely scratched the surface and know it. We
have yet to make good use of the information already located in various AOG and Academy
archives, and a real issue is to what level of detail the overview should achieve. We
depend upon the class members to monitor and correct this site, and to bring forward new
information and information sources.

CLASS REMINISCENCES: This section of the site will
change on a regular basis. It is composed of your memories and experiences. Periodically
we will announce the subject of a forth-coming Reminiscence; we hope that every class
member within reach will reply with something  even if its only a one-liner.
Examples of possible topics include: "1962 - Experiences During the Cuban Missile
Crisis", "1975 - Fall of Vietnam", "Memories of Service Schools",
"My First Overseas Tour", etc.

We want to keep this site interesting to fellow class
members by rotating the exhibits, so we need your input. On this site there will always be
a link to communicate with those writing the history. Use it anytime, but PLEASE use it to
send us your thoughts whenever a new topic for the history page is announced.

1955: On July 11, 306 civilians went through the gates of Lowry Air
Force Base outside Denver, Colorado, and emerged on the other side as new cadets in the
Air Force Academys first class. The very first to take the oath as a cadet was
Valmore Bourque, and 305 others followed close behind. (Val Bourque would graduate with
the Class of '60. Later, he died in Vietnam, ironically, the first Air Force Academy
graduate to die in combat.)

For the next four years  five years for a few  this close-knit group became
both experimenters and experimentees, as the early traditions of the new school grew up
around them. Everything was new, and (at least early on) everything was temporary.
Importantly, the site  Lowry AFB  was a temporary one, pressed into use while
the permanent Air Force Academy buildings were being built near Colorado Springs. Some
traditions came from long-standing military practice, others were responses to the needs
of the moment.

ATOs: Every military school has a hierarchical structure, in which the
upperclassmen provide leadership and guidance (and, to a certain degree, harassment) to
the new classes. Here in 1955 there were no experienced upper classmen, so it became
necessary to invent them  recently commissioned officers from other sources, called
Air Training Officers and brought in to act as pseudo-upperclassmen. So the first class
began with a whirlwind first day  learn to salute, learn to say "Yes,
Sir," get a haircut, get uniforms and learn to march in Wing Formation, all before
mid-afternoon. Why so fast? Because the new Wing of Cadets would march at the opening
ceremonies, which would also include a performance by the Air Force Thunderbirds Aerial
Demonstration Team.

Then followed eight weeks of intense military and physical training, culminating with a
weeks bivouac at Buckley Field.

What was living like? Two-man rooms in wooden converted WWII barracks. One closet for
clothes, a bookshelf, desk and an M-1 rifle for drills. The class assembled in three
squadrons in the quadrangle at the center of the barracks for parades and meal formations.
Meals were in a nearby mess hall, to which we marched in formation, and after eating,
returned individually  but still at a march step and still at attention. Training
was intense, albeit occasionally disjointed as the ATOs (who did not have a common
background) reverted to methods that had been used at their alma mater, whether they were
from the USMA, USNA, The Citadel, VMI or ROTC.

During the first year the Wing of Cadets was honored by an inspection by the President
of the United States, President Dwight Eisenhower, who received a briefing on the new
school and inspected First Squadron.

Near the end of summer training one day at lunch in the mess hall the class was asked
to decide upon an academy mascot. The choice quickly centered around the falcon and the
tiger. In retrospect, its hard to remember why the tiger was an attractive idea for
a mascot for an Air Force School, especially since it is used as the mascot for so many
other schools. But the Falcon it was, by a show of hands of the cadets.

Academics started after bivouac finished and the pace changed  academics now had
primacy, but the military training continued on top of it. The Cadet Wing was reorganized
into four squadrons. The 59ers got their first taste of flight as navigator training
began. Another task was to prepare for their part in the second inaugural for President
Eisenhower, which meant extra hours on the drill field practicing parade formations.
Because the 59ers were not given leave over Christmas to return home, that first Christmas
was spent in Denver, and most of the time was spent on site, although with a relaxed duty
schedule.

1956-1959: The year started off with the inaugural parade in
Washington D.C., before the cadets returned to their normal routines of academics,
training, and Saturday Morning inspections (SAMI). Then, almost too soon, it was time to
receive the new class, and before that, to figure out how the relationships between the
59ers, now "3rd Classmen (ie, sophomores) and the new cadets in the Class
of 60.

1959: The Class of 59, now down to 207 students, graduated on
June 3, 1959. Of these, 206 were commissioned  one graduate had been found to have a
physical problem that prevented his being commissioned. Of the 206, 205 were commissioned
as 2nd Lieutenants in the USAF and one joined the Marine Corps. The class
already had one football All-American and one Rhodes Scholar in its ranks, and it took
that step into the Air Force to make its mark.

1959-1960: 186 59ers -- 90% of the class -- went to pilot training,
with most going on to operational assignments. Others pursued careers as navigators or in
other Air Force specialities.

1960:

The first 59ers are combat qualified in
Tactical Air Command, Strategic Air Command and Air Defense Command.

August 19, 1960: 2Lt John C. K. Milligan
was killed in an auto accident in Greenville, Mississippi, the first death of a '59er.

May, 1965: The first 59ers are selected
for the military space program, attending the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards
Air Force Base to become qualified as experimental test pilots and qualified for space
flight. One -- Karol Bobko -- would go on to become a NASA astronaut, as a space shuttle
pilot.

1966:

January 2, 1966: Cpt Harlow K. Halbower
was killed during combat while flying an O-1F, South Vietnam, the first combat death in
the class of 1959.

September 19, 1966: Cpt William S.
Davis, III was killed in combat while flying a B-57 in South Vietnam.

June 1994: The last 59ers retired from
active duty. Over the years the class had created astronauts, generals, CEOs, doctors,
farmers, entrepreneurs, Commanders of Major Commands and a Vice Chief of Staff of the Air
Force. Not bad results from the 207 who walked out of the USAFA 35 years earlier.

The visit from President Eisenhower -- and his heart attack a few days later

On hand for one of the Academy's first formal reviews were,
from left to right: Mrs Sprague, Brig General Robert M. Stillman,
Maj General John Sprague, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lt
General Hubert R. Harmon, Brig General Don Zimmerman, and
Mrs HarmonPhoto from Pete Todd's article on the Air
Force Academy in the first issue of the
Talon, February 1956

Dance classes that included Mrs. Mac's imports from CWC and Loretta Heights

1955, in the original Arnold Hall, Lt Gen Harmon introduced Cadet Reeves to a guy named
Omar Bradley. It was a thrill. When asked by the General what I thought about being there,
I replied inanely that 'I miss my girlfriend." (From John Reeves)

Not going home the first Christmas

Spit-shining the cactus needles in the toes of the combat boots after bivouac

Golfing uniform

yellow shirts with grey flannel pants

Radio Free Academy, built by Jim Vance and operated using the dormitory wiring

The "March on Denver" before the D.U. football game

Ben Cassiday turning the march around from his Austin-Healey

Flights in the B-36 and the visit by the XC-99

Rings flown through the Mach

The ring dance and engagements

Form 10s

Form 10As

Getting the first car and all of the details that came with it

selecting the model, arranging the loan, getting the insurance, and protecting it from
the high winds in Venturi Valley

4% car loans

Driving to Denver in a snow storm

Speeding tickets in Castle Rock

ATO Jerome O'Malley, who stood head-and-shoulders above most of his counterparts and was
a model of excellence for all the cadets

ATO Joe Yeager and his fanatic approach to building spirit

And (insert your best remembered ATO name here)

because every ATO was important in building the initial structure of the Academy
traditions

The football game our doolie year down at the Springs played on the dirt of the old
Penrose Stadium built and used primarily for rodeos (also from Ed Montgomery)

Do you remember the Wyoming football game -away? On the way home in a very desolate spot
all of the busses pulled to the side of the road- p call. The entire wing disembarked to
answer the call of nature. I think I was one of the last to get back on the bus thinking
all the time-hurry, the bus will leave and it's a long hike to home base. (From Brian
Parker)

The Iowa game and the group spirit it displayed, about which an entire story could be
written

Moving aircraft from the Lowry flight line to the quadrangle

The Cotton Bowl game and Dallas

Team trips in a C-47

Maintaining aerial supremacy over Ponca City

Driftmeters

The "unique" odor on board a T-29

Woody Herman concert during first summer

World Premier of "The Hunters", a film about F-86 pilots during the Korean
War, with a cast that included (if memory serves) Dick Powell, Mae Britt and June Allison

U. S. Field Trips:

Eglin AFB, First Stop - Civil Engineering, the sewage treatment plant

Slow flights in C-124s

Fire power demonstrations

The summer field trip to Norfolk where we spent a day aboard the Ranger, and to Fort
Benning where we jumped out of the 35-foot towers.

The "Pig Pool" at the de rigeur Maxwell AFB Officers' Wives Club-hosted
Dance

At an air show in our honor, watching an F-86 crash on final turn while at Wright
Patterson AFB, then seeing the pilot's wife who had been sitting with us in shock ask the
briefer what's happened  a reminder to us all of the perils to self and family of
our chosen profession

Another view: "We havent done badly in a bare four
years," says a high-ranking faculty member. "Id say 50% of the first
graduating class are the well balanced men we wanted to produce, 25% are lacking except in
scientific and engineering skills, and the rest should not be graduated."

Quoted from Time Magazine, June 1, 1959

The European Trip:

Warm beer in the wee morning hours at Cranwell

"Horsey" and "Are You There, Moriarity"

Capt. Braswell jousting on a bicycle with a garbage can lid and mop

The nurses' school across the street from the Columbia House (where we were billeted)

Hyde Park and the speech-making

Continental Breakfasts at the hotel in Paris, when we were all broke

Brandenberg Gate

The Far East Trip:

Flying the entire route in a USN Constellation

Flying in a TF-102 in Alaska

Shemya refueling stop, with a girl behind every tree (no trees on the entire island)

Canceling the Yokosuka briefing so we could go shopping in the Ship's Store

400 yen to the dollar

Almost destroying the door frame of a small tailor shop when I forgot to duck through
the low door when leaving

The Queen Bee in Tokyo, and Papagayo's Bar, a dimly lit cave under the Simbashi Street
subway station, where the classiest thing in the place was the sign to the men's room,
which said "4-U-2-P"

The Grand Hotel in Taiwan, with enormous bright red columns

The airshow by Taiwan's demonstration team. Normally a nine-ship formation, but only
five flew that day, "because the others were flying combat missions"

The Peak in Hong Kong, where at least one cadet decided that some day, he would return
for a tour of duty there and did

A two hour bus ride from Clark AFB into Quezon City, with no time for sight-seeing, and
an equally rapid trip back to the base without ever spending time to sight see Manila

The round of weddings as some grads started their Air Force careers and their married
life simultaneously

Trying to figure out what to do with the old cadet uniforms. (At least one wound up as
part of a very high quality braided rag rug!)

Marveling at the idea of a metal diploma.

A broken leg from a skiing accident didn't stop Cadet
John G. Hayes Jr of San Mateo, Calif, from stepping up to the stage at the Air Force
Academy to receive his diploma and commission. With him is a friend, Sheila Hackworth,
Birmingham, Ala.

Air
Force Secretary James Douglas congratulates Bradley C. Hosmer, the top-honor man in the
first graduating class at the Air Force Academy. Hosmer will go to England this summer as
a Rhodes Scholar.

Photos
from the Rocky Mountain news, June 4, 1959

Information
and Headlines in the Rocky Mountain News,
Thursday, June 4, 1959

207 AIR CADETS ARE GRADUATED

Mice Rocketed
Into Space Fail to Orbit

West Offers Limit on Berlin Troops

Nicaraguas Air Force Alerted for Rebel Action

Britain next week takes the secrecy wraps off a strange-looking machine it
claims is the first-ever flying saucer

House Oks Spending $38 Billion on Defense

The Graduation Benediction, written almost 800 years ago
by Saint Francis of Assisi and read by Col. C. E. Zielinski, the Catholic Chaplain

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,
That where there is hatred I may bring love,
That where there is wrong I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,
That where there is discord I may bring harmony,
That where there is error I may bring truth,
That were there is doubt I may bring faith,
That where there is despair I may bring hope,
That where there are shadows I may bring Thy light,
That where there is sadness I may bring joy,
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted,
To understand than to be understood,
To love than to be loved,
For
It is by giving that one receives,
It is by self-forgetting that one finds,
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven,
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

There is a lot of trivia here, but the best summary comes from Ken Thompson,
who wrote:

During one parade in our freshman year the heavens opened up. It was the worst rain
storm that I remembered up to that time (probably since then also). We wore our khaki
uniforms but with no rain gear and, of course, we were soaked. Among my better thoughts as
we were marching through this storm was who in their right mind would make us continue to
march in this crazy weather. The water was over our shoes as we marched in the roadways
and I kept envisioning our rifles becoming pure rust before the parade was over! By the
time the Pass In Review started I was thoroughly convinced, and from the murmurs I kept
hearing from the ranks I think most of the rest of us were also convinced, that this whole
exercise was the dumbest thing we had ever done!

All of a sudden, things changed. As we did our Eyes Right we saw General Harmon - khaki
uniform, no rain gear, no umbrella, standing straighter than any cadet I have ever seen!
All of a sudden it hit me as to why we were here, what the Academy was all about! General
Harmon was not miserable, he was proud!! I sensed a similar feeling throughout the ranks.
I remember singing The Air Force Song on the way back to the barracks; it seemed like
everybody was singing their hearts out. This one thing, seeing General Harmon standing
there thoroughly soaked, ramrod straight, proud, did more to motivate me than anything
before or after at the Academy.

And a final reminiscence:

General Harmon's funeral parade, and recognition of all that he had done to make the
dreams of a professional Air Force Academy come true